Leiweke: Carroll can help cure Seahawks’ dysfunction

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Seattle Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke acknowledged Monday that the franchise has been dysfunctional in some regards in recent years due to issues between former head coach Mike Holmgren and general manager Tim Ruskell, as well as the coach-in-waiting situation with Jim Mora.

But Leiweke, fresh off hiring new head coach Pete Carroll, vowed that better times are ahead.

Tod Leiweke

“The status quo simply wasn’t an option,” said Leiweke, who said the decision to fire Mora was an organizational choice that he agreed with and not just something ordered by owner Paul Allen.

He said Carroll will serve as head coach and vice president of football operations, while working “shoulder to shoulder” with the new general manager in personnel decisions. The team will interview four or five GM candidates this week.

John Idzik, who already handles the role of salary cap and financial specialist, will continue handling those duties under the title of vice president of football administration.

The key, in Leiweke’s mind, will be finding the right GM to work in tandem with Carroll.

“To be quite honest, there was not a harmonious relationship between Tim and Mike Holmgren,” Leiweke said. “And it’s probably neither guy’s fault, but we learned a lot there. Can collaboration work? It does all the time in all kinds of environments.”

Dysfunction led to the realization of a need for a clean sweep. Leiweke said having Ruskell filling the role of GM under Holmgren in a role taken away from the former coach was “a challenge,” as was Mora’s waiting period as assistant coach under Holmgren.

“You had a lot of reasons for things not to work here,” Leiweke said. “This could have worked in a much more unified way. A house divided is sure to fail. What we’re doing here is a clean slate, and it’s a new era for Seahawks football.”

Leiweke sung the praises of Carroll, saying “this is a guy who knows how to win” and has a chip on his shoulder from his previous two failures as an NFL head coach that drove him to seek this opportunity.

He noted Carroll’s 33-31 record in pro football has been dwarfed by his subsequent domination at the college level.

“He had a .500 record and has been panned for that, but this is a guy that then went on and did things in football that no man has ever done,” Leiweke said. “And after these last two seasons, those are things that really resonate with us.”

“The fact is, some guys are more effective after they’ve had a tough experience. Now by the way, that was a long time ago for this guy. And his record and achievements at USC are really unparalleled.”

As for the negative reaction of many Seahawks’ fans, Leiweke said he wasn’t surprised.

“No, because when you lead with your chin, when you’ve had two years like we’ve had, when people see some dysfunction, when you have a legend like Mike Holmgren leave and you let a coach go after one year, it doesn’t really set the table for a ticker tape parade for the next guy coming in.

“But what gets that right is winning. And Mr. Allen gave us the authority to go out and find the best coach we could and we think we have. And now we’re going to find the best GM. And I’m confident it’s going to result in what our fans most want, which is winning.”